How do I force preview to open a PDF?

Question

Level 1

9 points

How do I force preview to open a PDF?

I'm getting a lot annoyed with pdf's I'm getting lately. Recently I received one that, when viewed in Preview, pops an ad for Acrobat and will not display the content. Is there any way to edit the PDF header/metadata to eliminate this? For example, for a while, Preview couldn't open PDF 1.4, but all you had to do was change the header in the file to indicate it was PDF 1.3, and it would open.

I'm on MacOS Sonoma 14.4.1, and I did try modifying the PDF version in the file header, but it's not eliminating the popup, and otherwise I cannot see the content without using Acrobat, which is a hard no for me.

Posted on May 8, 2024 10:54 AM

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Answer 1

May 8, 2024 6:14 PM in response to k283

k283 wrote:

I'm getting a lot annoyed with pdf's I'm getting lately. Recently I received one that, when viewed in Preview, pops an ad for Acrobat and will not display the content. Is there any way to edit the PDF header/metadata to eliminate this? For example, for a while, Preview couldn't open PDF 1.4, but all you had to do was change the header in the file to indicate it was PDF 1.3, and it would open.

I'm on MacOS Sonoma 14.4.1, and I did try modifying the PDF version in the file header, but it's not eliminating the popup, and otherwise I cannot see the content without using Acrobat, which is a hard no for me.

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/cba56107-467c-4b02-8357-e632679c5fea

No link to the original..? hard to trouble shoot an unknown source, it

sounds to me like an add or promotional for Adobe Acrobat Reader..

Acrobat Reader / Adobe Acrobat DC

https://get.adobe.com/reader/

Try a different PDF viewer/editor if you do not want to use their reader or throw it in the trash.

You can try from the Terminal.app

open -a Preview.app <filename.pdf>

Preview.app is not a panacea.

here are a few alternatives to try if Preview is not opening it...

PDFpen / Nitro

https://pdfpen.com/pdfpen/

pdfExpert

https://pdfexpert.com/

Master PDF Editor

https://code-industry.net/get-masterpdfeditor/

PDFgear

https://www.pdfgear.com

Foxit Reader / Editor

https://www.foxit.com/

Wondershare PDFelement

https://pdf.wondershare.com/

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Answer 2

May 9, 2024 2:16 AM in response to k283

There is a sales adage that one can sell to an objection, but not to a condition. Your condition of not using the free Adobe Acrobat Reader simply denies you access to the most current PDF handling code — something Apple's Preview lacks. For that reason, there are PDFs that Preview simply will never open that most likely, if not damaged, would open in Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Humans do not read binary PDF dumps. Some PDF versions may foretell that the PDF contains certain features that are unsupported in a lesser PDF version and if you alter that version number, you could trash the PDF application handling. This particular PDF is ancient considering it refers to Adobe Acrobat X.

You can try any of the free demo PDF Editors from the links that leroydouglas provided, but do not attempt to change anything or the original PDF will get a watermark on it.

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Answer 3

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,962 points

May 9, 2024 4:43 AM in response to k283

The problem you are having is that PDF is not only a PDF. It is a PDF wrapped in a container adobe calls a portfolio which is a collection of PDFs. Preview has no capability to open the container to show you the PDFs inside.

It’s possible that “Portfolio” is entirely proprietary and it’s not just that Apple hasn’t implemented that capability in Preview.

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Answer 4

lkrupp

Level 6

14,554 points

May 9, 2024 7:54 AM in response to k283

Download Adobe Acrobat Reader... it’s free, no charge or subscription.

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Answer 5

k283 Author

Level 1

9 points

May 8, 2024 10:59 PM in response to Matti Haveri

Unfortunately, this particular PDF was provided under NDA, which is another problem, so I can't provide the full PDF, but I can provide the header (at the bottom). The document is set of PDF documents embedded inside another PDF, which might also be a problem with Preview. While I've never seen a PDF do this, although there is a long tradition of US government PDF forms popping a similar message when opened with editors other than Acrobat. I was just looking for some insights into how such a message is encoded in the document metadata (and presumably how to disable it). Appreciate the pointers to other PDF readers, some of those I've used, just like to avoid bloating things up with a bunch of apps that basically do very little.

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